RESPONSE OF DEPRESSED ADOLESCENTS TO COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT -DO DIFFERENCES IN INITIAL SEVERITY CLARIFY THE COMPARISON OF TREATMENTS

This study evaluated the impact of pretreatment depression severity an d functional impairment on the response of 2 samples of older depresse d adolescents to 2 group cognitive-behavioral treatments. Differences between the 2 active treatments and between active treatment and a wai ting-list control condition were expected to be greater in the more se verely depressed-impaired group. Variables assessing severity and impa irment appeared to be best conceptualized as measures of a single fact or. Improvement for the 2 active treatments in comparison to the contr ol condition was greater in the more severely depressed group in one o f the samples but not the other. The prediction that the relative effe ctiveness of the 2 treatments would be accentuated in the more severel y depressed adolescents received no support in either sample. Implicat ions of these findings for future psychotherapy research are discussed .